Five Best Media Center Applications — The past ten years have completely changed the way we listen to music, watch movies and television, and take photos, and one thing is abundantly clear: The future of your media lies undeniably in the digital realm. Now you just need to find …

Technology start-ups to be given £1bn fund — The government plans to launch a £1bn emergency venture capital fund in a bid to throw a lifeline to technology start-up firms. — The fund has won the backing of the new science and innovation minister Lord Drayson.

Wireless turns iPod into a phone — A freeware application for the iPod Touch can turn the music player into a virtual mobile phone. — Truphone uses wi-fi technology in an iPod Touch to allow users to make calls to other iPod Touch owners and Google Talk's messaging service users.

The End Of Venture Capital As We Know It? — Last week, something turned. We found out that not only are we in a recession, but it started a year ago. Tech layoffs went into overdrive (12,000 at AT&T, 600 at Adobe, 130 at Real Networks), bringing the total unemployed tech workforce to at least 90,000, by our count.

Economy, opportunity seen leading to $599 Apple netbook — Faced with the perfect storm of a bleak market and a boom in ultra-budget portables, Apple is believed by some to be readying its own take on the netbook for the first half of 2009. — Analyst Ezra Gottheil from Technology Business Research …

Walmart.com offers “thousands” of Wiis from Monday — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii has emerged as one of the few hot products this holiday season, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc will offer “tens of thousands” of the hard-to-get video game consoles on its website starting on Monday.